Jacob Rees-Mogg was today forced to deny that the Government had dragged the Queen into politics with the decision to prorogue parliament.
The Leader of the Commons flew to Scotland yesterday to meet the Queen at Balmoral and formally seek her approval to suspend Parliament from around mid-September. He was joined by the Leader of the Lords, Baroness Evans, and chief whip Mark Spencer.
The move brought fierce criticism, with the Government accused of involving the monarch in an “unprecedented constitutional crisis”.
Former cabinet secretary Lord O’Donnell said: “The Queen had no option but to accept the Prime Minister’s request on prorogation but making such a political request, which is now being legally challenged, hardly helps keeping her above politics.” Defending the move, Mr Rees-Mogg told Talkradio: “The people saying this put the Queen in a difficult position simply don’t know what they are talking about. They are wrong. The Queen has to accept advice from her Prime Minister. That is how a constitutional monarchy works. She had no discretion in this whatsoever. People who are saying you have involved the Queen in politics are irresponsible and ought to go back to school to study the constitution.”
Former foreign secretary Dame Margaret Beckett said it was “disgraceful” that Boris Johnson had involved the Queen in the row while senior Labour MP Yvette Cooper said he was “trying to use the Queen to concentrate power in his own hands”.
Mr Rees-Mogg described the Balmoral meeting on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The Queen says ‘approved’. That’s it. There is no chat. There is no debate. It’s all held standing up. So it’s a very formal process.”
The MP boarded a BA flight to Aberdeen at 8.45am yesterday. He was said to have travelled separately from Baroness Evans and Mr Spencer. However, their cover was blown when a leak — said to have come from Whitehall — forced No 10 to confirm the prorogation plan during the flight. Mr Johnson had to bring forward a phone call to the Queen to ensure she would know about the request before hearing about it on the news, according to the Daily Telegraph.
